Mark Patinkin: Will other politicians stand with Taveras on revoking Gianquitti’s pension?

Sunday

Apr 6, 2014 at 12:01 AM

Journalists are pretty quick to hit politicians for what they do wrong. Or don’t do at all. And we give little praise when they do something right. The public’s the same way. It’s a pol’s job to deliver....

Mark Patinkin Journal Columnist markpatinkin

Journalists are pretty quick to hit politicians for what they do wrong. Or don’t do at all.

And we give little praise when they do something right. The public’s the same way. It’s a pol’s job to deliver. That’s what we put them there for.

But every now and then, an official sticks his neck out in a way that merits applause.

Providence Mayor Angel Taveras is one. He deserves a nod for trying to stop the most egregious “legal” pension I’ve ever heard of.

He’s taken steps to bar a convict from drawing a $51,000, tax-free disability pension while serving life in prison for murder.

The convict’s name is Nicholas Gianquitti, 46, a former Providence cop who killed his firefighter neighbor James Pagano by shooting him in the back in front of his own family.

You know what he shot him for? Gianquitti was furious over a child’s tennis ball rolling into his driveway. That’s the kind of person he is.

He’s been locked up since 2008, but because his crime wasn’t committed while he was on the job, he was allowed to keep his pension.

Not, however, if Mayor Taveras has a say in the matter.

A few weeks ago, not long after I wrote three columns on the case that got enormous reader response, Taveras took action.

At his request, a bill was introduced in the state Senate that would bar payment of a city or state pension while the recipient is serving life for a crime.

Some might say it’s not exactly a profile in courage — you’d think few would oppose such a bill.

Not true.

In 2012, state Rep. Peter Palumbo submitted legislation to cancel pensions to ex-cops or firefighters who commit murder, but got nowhere. Another bill tried to let James Pagano’s family seek damages from Gianquitti through his pension, but public-sector labor unions opposed and killed it.

Aside from those two efforts, during the six years Gianquitti has been in prison, no one has tried to stop a murderer from being supported by Providence taxpayers.

What makes the case especially galling is Gianquitti’s back story. He spent almost no time as a Providence cop — two years in the radio room and six months as a patrolman. Then he asked to be put on the dole for life.

You’d think that only a catastrophic injury would justify that for a cop in his 20s. Hardly. He hurt his knee. As many readers pointed out to me, pro athletes routinely rip their knees apart but soon rehab back to the punishing world of major-league sports. Nicholas Gianquitti, on the other hand, is a classic case of someone who’d rather have his hand out than honorably earn his own way. He has worked his knee boo-boo into a decades-long free ride.

In many ways, his is more than just a case of an outrageous pension. Many in Rhode Island have come to see him as a symbol of broken government. Readers wrote me saying Gianquitti’s pension makes them want to leave the state. Others couldn’t believe that no one in power was striving to stop a murderer getting indulgent checks from taxpayers.

That’s why it’s important to see Mayor Taveras take action.

Critics might say he’s just trying to get votes in his run for governor. But plenty of folks are running for lots of offices, and Taveras is the only one now trying to stop Nicholas Gianquitti’s two-decade free ride.

I hope Taveras will pursue other means as well, like making sure Gianquitti’s “disability” is annually verified, hopefully by doctors who have courage instead of the usual, gullible rubber stamp they give to questionable injuries.

As for Taveras’ proposed bill, he of course can’t succeed alone. The General Assembly has to stand with him — despite potential opposition from the same state employee unions who fought the Pagano family’s efforts to seek damages from Gianquitti.

I fully expect unions to argue that as horrible as this case is, pensions must be left alone as sacrosanct. To me, that’s a bogus argument. Ending a murderer’s tax-free handouts while behind bars doesn’t threaten the pensions of folks who aren’t criminals. To say otherwise is an example of public unions being so paranoid in protecting their own interests they’ve lost common sense.

And they’ve lost sight of one other thing.

Many people really do see Gianquitti’s pension as a touchstone test of our system: Does Rhode Island government have the will to fix one of its most broken parts? Or is it too sclerotic — and beholden to special interests — to act?

Mayor Taveras is trying to protect taxpayers from having to keep a murderer on the dole.